The Core Aspects of Nunu from a Nunu Main

My boys are in a weird spot right now , so I'm here to talk about what I think should stay and go in the upcoming rework. Hopefully having some ideas about Nunu will inspire Riot to hurry up and rework him already. I still can't believe of all champions is getting priority over him but c'est la vie.

THE GOOD

1. Absolute objective control, at a heavy cost. Nunu's Consume is the skill everyone cares about. It is the skill that used to have the most skill expression, seeing as it gave different buffs based on which types of monsters Nunu had recently chomped on. Now it's just boring and lackluster, but the main idea is still there. If Nunu gets onto a dragon, you either kill Nunu or you lose that dragon. That is how it works. Nunu has one fewer ability to use in team fights than every other champion, but that ability gives him unprecedented objective control and sustain in the jungle. This should remain. Consume can be updated, modernized, balanced, tweaked, whatever. Just make sure it guarantees him the kill/steal on objectives, and that it has no effect on champions to compensate.

2. Nunu's playstyle focuses more on strategic play than on mechanical skill. We saw this with . Riot loves taking point and click abilities and changing them into skill shots and increasing their range. This is not something that is necessary for Nunu. Nunu as a champion is already incredibly short range, he gets no benefit out of engaging from a distance unless he has Flash. His Ice Blast chasing enemy champions through Flash and other blinks is an excellent method of punishing players who were out of position and try to use their abilities to run away after Nunu has already closed the gap. Nunu's primary focus should be on effective invading, strategic warding, sneaking objectives, and counterganks. He doesn't need to worry about landing skill shots, dashing or leaping properly, or any of that shit. Don't give him any mobility, don't take away his point and click, just leave him as mechanically simple.

3. Nunu doesn't do much. People have talked about how to combine Nunu and Willump in the rework. This is dumb, ignore it. The Yeti and the Rider function just fine as a single unit, you don't need to over complicate anything.

THE STUFF THAT CAN GO

1. A supportive counterjungler. I don't play Nunu to support my allies, I play Nunu to bend the enemy jungler over and give him a nice 2 level disadvantage. I play Nunu because I know how valuable a tank can be and I want to make sure our team's tank has a nice fat gold lead without worrying about getting harassed or bullied in lane. I play Nunu because I know that five dragons will win me the game even if my team is 0/6 by 6 minutes. Fuck my carries, half the time they're shit anyway, I don't want or need any attack speed or movement speed buff for them. I don't build Locket, I don't build Knight's Vow. Fuck my teammates, focus on me, the tank. Nunu needs some hard crowd control to compete with other vanguards. Blood Boil should be taken out completely and replaced with an AOE knock up or a hard stun or something similar.

2. Visionary. Visionary used to be nothing more than an excuse for Nunu's ridiculous mana costs. Now it's an excuse for his ridiculous mana costs that also gives him really weird numbers when he Consumes (seriously, true damage numbers should be nice and round). When Nunu gets reworked, his mana should be updated. Give him a nice, modern mana pool like 400-900 or something, and increase his mana costs to compensate. Nunu at the moment doesn't feel like he NEEDS , and really that's the point of high mana costs on tanks, it's to encourage them to buy tank items that have mana. Fix this already.

3. The Out of Nowhere, Out of Control Burst As much as I love the ridiculous amount of damage from Absolute Zero, it really feels out of place on a tank. This has to do with Nunu's thematic. He is a big, bulky champion with a large hit box. These type of champions take hits, they don't dish them out. I understand that Nunu only has one other ability besides his Ice Blast that does damage, but tacking the entire rest of the necessary damage in his kit onto his ultimate was not the way to go about handling the minimum damage for a champion. Nunu's Absolute Zero should be reworked to deal a minor amount of damage (probably 1/3rd of what it does now at full charge) and in exchange have it snare enemy champions if it reaches the full charge. Make Nunu a giant AOE CC machine. You can put damage on his new W and his new passive that spreads it more throughout his kit and makes his damage patterns a little more predictable and a little less "I didn't have Flash oh god where's my health bar?"